This morning the length and breadth of the country, young people are nervously arriving in schools or logging online to access their Leaving Certificate results.

The media will be filled with analysts, experts and counsellors over the next few days and the hype machine will be in overdrive.

For a time, students will be made to feel their own self worth is somehow connected and wrapped up in the marks on a sheet of paper.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only does the Leaving Certificate fail to provide any assessment of an individual's worth, it even struggles to act as a good barometer of educational achievement. As currently set up, the Leaving Certificate still resembles more a test of memory than a test of knowledge and understanding.

Students would do well to remember too that most people in their late 30s or 40s struggle to even remember their Leaving Certificate results.

It may, right now, seem like one of the most important days of your life, but as you progress through your journey on this planet, it fades into relative insignificance.

That, of course, is not to suggest that the results are of no consequence.

Academic performance in Leaving Certificate can obviously provide a vital route into third level education but no longer is it a terminus or even a significant stop on one's educational journey. Third-level education is being surpassed by fourth-level as the number of people seeking higher and better qualifications becomes more and more significant

There are many people who may not obtain the third level course of their choice but can find themselves enjoying an alternative career or educational route.

There is a variety of educational options out there, from repeating the Leaving Certificate to PLCs. And education is becoming more and more of a lifelong process, with many middle aged workers continuing to top up their academic qualifications as they get older.

Today is an important day after all, the last five or six years of second level education has been leading up to the Leaving Certificate, but let's keep things in perspective. Your education doesn't end here.